Kate set to storm the UK album charts!

We are very happy to report that Director’s Cut is No 1 in the UK midweek album sales chart, which means it is the best selling record in the UK after the first day of sales. Fantastic news! We must bear in mind, however, that the figures include all the online pre-orders, plus we know a lot of fans were out yesterday to get copies in the record shops, so the sales will level out over the week. We are predicting that it will probably end up at 2 or 3 in the final chart published on Sunday. By any measure this is a fantastic success and we send our hugest congratulations to Kate and everyone involved in this release! What a tremendous first early indication that the UK public have embraced Kate’s new album.

Music Week are also already discussing the prospects of Director’s Cut toppling Adele’s astounding chart run. Read more here. The NME reckon Kate can take on Lady Gaga next week also! See their spin on the chart race here.

Anyone know how exactly sales figures are compiled? Is the chart made from sales via record shops such as HMV etc only or do Amazon and supermarket purchases of the record count towards the chart placing of an album?

From: Roz Ure on Stage Door Phoenix 98FM
‘I am presenting a Top 20 radio show on Friday night devoted to Kate Bush as voted for by listeners. If you would like to vote for your favourite Kate Bush songs you can do so at http://www.phoenixfm.com and click on the Top 20 link and make your choice. The show will be going out 10pm-midnight this Friday 20th May. Listen live via the website.’

Great news. Congratulations to all concerned. And those clever music fans. We have been suffering all the glamour with no substance for too long; the music has an extra layer again. As an old fart (sorry fan) I’m really pleased that my daughters’ are getting into Kate’s work – and Father’s Day is sorted again

As of Wednesday May 18 2011, Directors Cut was still ahead in sales at over 17,000 with Adele’s album sales for the week in the 14,000-15,000 range. A fairly strong sales and cultural statement that Kate Bush is fairly viable in the music world and she could post in at number 1 by the end of the coming weekend. Additionally, in an earlier post on this web site: Kate Bush News, I posted some ideas of Kate Bush Chrissie Hynde and faith Hill playing the halftime of the Superbowl—-a fleeting idea of sorts, thinking about what concert avenues would be best for a touring kate Bush comeback. In any case, in those posts along with that idea, I cited Chrissie Hynde and Faith Hill’s verion of Middle of the Road at the CMT crossroads Superbowl jam, a pre game program aired in the U.S.A. in one of the posts. A week later the you tube version and other search engines pulled it off the internet. That is, the Chrissie Hynde Faith Hill Middle of the Road performance at the superbowl CMT Corssroads super bowl pregame concert program. Supposedly copyright disputes with Viacom was the reason. But in anycase as of May 18 2011, its nowhere to be found on the internet evidently.

Correction on the content of the previous post> I did find two web sites that did carry the CMT Crossroads C.Hynde and F. Hill Middle of the Road song, so its not off the internet entirely. THe two sites: Girl ROck Nation; Chrissie Hynde Faith Hill partner for CMT Crossroads jam posted by C Mauck Feb 9, 2011. The second site: (2) Fender Front Row; THe official Fender Row, posted by Chrissy mauck February 9,2011. CMT Crossroads.
In anycase a few weeks ago you tube, daily motion and most liley other music video outlets did not carry this CMT Crossroads version of the Middle of the Road song. You tube as of May 18 2011 still does not carry it. Yet its still on the internet, possibly on some additional sites than the two just listed. In anycase, Chrissie Hynde uses a harmonica at the end of the song, a feature similar to ‘the new 2011 kate Bush Rubberband Girl’ where kate Bush has a harmonica rift completing the end of that song.

Its near 6:00 p.m. THursday May 19 2011, here on the east coast in the U.S.A. and two May 19th articles appeared in the British press apparently confidently stating Kate Bush’s Directors Cut will come in at number 1 by weekend’s conclusion on the UK charts. A feat last done by her in 1986 when the Whole Story placed at the top of the UK charts. Three days to go, and it seems the Directors Cut sales push will hold steady enough for the top spot.
Following two Thursday articles carried this info and one can read more by going to them:
“Kate Bush Heading for Number one “Directors Cut outselling Adele” Robin Murray; CLASH http://www.clashmusic.com 19/05/2011.

From Metro.Co.UK Ann Lee – May 19 2011. “Kate Bush to topple Adele from No. 1 in UK Albums chart.” Some content from this article: “it will become her first number one album since 1986’s The Whole Story.
Lady Gaga whose new album Born This Way is streaming exclusively on metro.co.uk/gaga before its released on May 23,is on course to dominate the top 20 with no less than four of her songs.” end quoted material.
Other articles of this past week on kate Bush’s Directors Cut strength in the charts.
(3) Gigwise: “Kate Bush on course to end Adele’s UK album chart reign.
(4) 5 albums to stream for free this week: Moby, Kate Bush 10:30 a.m. Monday May 16 2011. Tom Hawking.

THe next interesting fact to find out is how well Director’s Cut stands up against the new incoming Lady Gaga album entry on Monday May 23 2011, after the Kate Bush album has been out in the UK public for the previous week where the initial peak of sales would have occured within this time period.

Afraid Kate’s already dipped below Adele. She held her off Tuesday and Weds, but in the Thursday and Friday chart midweek updates, Kate was down to 2. It’s unlikely she’ll take over again, as her sales will naturally slow down as the week goes on (with all preorder sales included in Tuesday’s tally), whereas Adele’s will be more constant over the weekend.

Still, looks like she’ll finish at No.2, which is pretty good for an album revisiting tracks from two albums that also made No.2 – frustrating though for Kate to have four albums in a row peaking at 2, 2, 3 and 2.

She won’t trouble Lady Gaga though, and the other albums in the Top 10 – both Adeles, Hugh Laurie, Bruno Mars, Jessie J will continue to sell strongly, and Director’s Cut will slip down quite quickly. I wouldn’t even expect it to be in next week’s Top 10, to be honest. With no imminent second single (and Deeper Understanding not registering in the Top 75), there’s not going to be anything to encourage people to go out and buy the album in June. Shame.

I guess so much for accurate album sales info from the British press, but in anycase, how important such sales positions are, at best debatable, I suppose. What I did find interesting though was the margin of Kate Bush trailing Adele. It was somewhere around the area of 2 to 3 thousand copies, possibly a little more as of Thursday. I did find an accurate reporting on the sales data for Directors Cut from Gigwise, today, Friday May 20 2011 for that information. In anycase, I worked sales for a theatre company in central North Carolina in the 1980s. From those experiencesI put together a paradigm for Kate Bush album sales operations.For opening two weeks with phone sales, (credit card purchases basically)and a volunteer staff of salespeople of 500, working a standard 8 hour day, I bet the sales could increase by 7,000 to 10,000, for a week, maybe a lot more than that. Thats 20,000 hours of sales push that is not currently present with only standing record store sales, a relatively passive sale. For only a two week period, the phone order format is not a bad idea in the future.

Send all your comments, questions or suggestions: sean@katebushnews.com (Note: This is an unofficial website and messages to Kate cannot be passed on to her). Enormous thanks to Mike Wade for being an incredibly patient and fair administrator on our forum! Huge thanks to Brian Cloughley for his enthusiasm and wonderful site artwork! Special thanks to everyone who emails the site and to Homeground magazine (for inspiration and information and for being wonderful people!) and to Wally Breese for showing how it can be done. Editorial assistance from The Duck. Thanks! Site launched: 25/1/98